Parentage: ‘Prince Charles’ is a seedling selection resulting from the open pollination of a cultivated population of Gardenia jasminoides ‘Chuck Hayes’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 28,755) at a commercial plant nursery in Siler City, N.C. In October of 2005, seed was collected from these ‘Chuck Hayes’ plants, germinated, and the seedlings grown to a mature size in one gallon nursery containers in order to evaluate the progeny for unique characteristics which may be of commercial value. In March of 2006, one such seedling was observed to exhibit early flowering and recurrent flowering through summer, compared to the parent plant which bloomed later and aborted flowers in the heat of summer. The plant was isolated for further evaluation and given the name, ‘Prince Charles’.
Asexual Reproduction: Asexual reproduction of ‘Prince Charles’, by way of softwood stem tip cuttings, was first performed in 2013 in Siler City, N.C. Through four subsequent generations, the unique features of this cultivar have proven to be stable and true to type.